How accurate is the nostalgia of the “Modern, Progressive Afghanistan of the 1970s?” Has Afghan culture and society really changed that much in the last 40 years?The Soviet-Afghan War was a tangled conflict filled with legend, myth, and hard realities. In a span of ten years, international Jihadists such as Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abdullah Azzam joined forces with Afghan fighters, the United States, and China to cripple the Soviet Union.In The Bear, the Dragon, and the Ak-47, geopolitical analyst Ethan Rosen takes you on a tour of the secret arms deals, geopolitical maneuvering, and ideological struggle that brought down the Soviet Uni… more about book…

Is there any information on Post-traumatic Stress in societies in which warfare was looked at in a more favorable light (e.g Sparta)?An original and groundbreaking book that examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorderIn this strikingly original and groundbreaking book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written twenty-seven centuries ago it has much to teach a… more about book…

What were the logistics of gunpowder (i.e. getting the raw materials, refining, measuring and transporting) in the early days of gunpowder wars for different cultures.An unlikely world history from the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the WorldIn his fifth work of nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes… more about book…

When and how did fairies “shrink?”Trolls always get a bad rap. One lurks under a bridge, another harasses a gnome, and suddenly people label the entire species as trouble. Of course, that is because they are, indeed, trouble. The folklore about these Scandinavian supernatural beings is rich and varied, and there is plenty of opportunities to purse Celtic parallels. Comprehensively examined in a 1936 German-language dissertation, this book adapts the earlier work, taking popular belief further to the English-speaking world and… more about book…

If the Black Plague originally came from China and spread along trade routes, why do we only hear about the carnage it caused in Europe? Was China not affected by the plague?It was a catastrophe without precedent in recorded history: for months on end, starting in A.D. 535, a strange, dusky haze robbed much of the earth of normal sunlight. Crops failed in Asia and the Middle East as global weather patterns radically altered. Bubonic plague, exploding out of Africa, wiped out entire populations in Europe. Flood and drought brought ancient cultures to the brink of collapse. In a matter of decades, the old order died and a new world—essentially the modern world as w… more about book…

It’s gonna be negative -30 (factoring windchill) in Boston the next couple of days…how did our ancestors survive this?The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how this altered climate affected historical events, and what it means for today’s global warming. Building on research that has only recently confirmed that the world endured a 500year cold snap, renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan shows how the increasing cold influenced familiar events from Norse exploration to the settlement of North America to the Industrial Revolution… more about book…

What is the most interesting anecdote you know about Native American history?In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all. S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to c… more about book…

Was depression and mental illness as prominent as it is in modern society back in ancient times? Are there any records of severe depression, schizophrenia, BPD, or any other mental illness that would suggest it was common hundreds and thousands of years ago?One of the major documents of modern European civilization, Robert Burton’s astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in all its myriad forms, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the seventeenth century. Lewellyn Powys called it “the greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prose-writing,” while the celebrated surgeon William Osler declared it the greatest of medical treatises. And Dr. Johnson, Boswell reports, said it was the only book that he ro… more about book…

Why did the Confederacy enjoy such success at the start of the Civil War? What changed?“The crowning achievement of one of America’s most distinguished military historians.” ―Lincoln Prize jury”Readers will find much to debate in this book―including… its affirmation that, because of emancipation, ‘the Civil War calls for a rethinking of the attitude… that war is always futile, that its rewards never match its cost, that any conflict [must be] immediately decisive and virtually without loss of American lives.’” ―Gary W. Gallagher more about book…

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